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January 2024
The New Year arrived quietly for us. May came to stay for the night with us. I had made split pea and ham soup which we enjoyed and had an early night.
Walks
The weather had been terrible, cold, grey, and cloudy, but we did have an occasional sunny day.
On one such day we went for a walk with Winter, Kate and May along the Southshore coves and the dunes. We set off above the coves along the trail above the beaches and then returned along the coves and rocks dividing them.
May loved the rock climbing and so was very happy to scramble up the steep sides.
Boston again
John had to return to Lahey Hospital in Boston to have the stent and the remains of 2 stones removed from his bile duct. This time John arrived with a black eye, which he received when playing with Eve.
Once again we flew Bermuda Air. It really is a wonderful airline, with roomy seating, great staff and easy no fuss boarding. Again, we stayed at the Hyatt House hotel. The day after we arrived I took John to the endoplasophy department where he had his proceedure. I assumed he would be at least half a day, but no, he was all finished before lunch time and ready for me to collect. However he had to rest for the remainder of the day, which we both found very boring.
For our last day we were lucky that it wasn’t too cold and we were able to walk about the area, but again a very mundane day. We walked every strip mall in the area. We visited every shop that looked remotely interesting and people watched, managing to stay out until 2:30pm
A stay at Gavin’s
We were staying at our son Gavin’s house for the last part of our Bermuda holiday. This was lovely as we had time to catch up with him and Katie and see more of the girls.
On our last day all of the young cousins were at Gavin’s to say goodbye to us.
And Quest finally took off bike riding. He was very so proud to finally be able to ride with the group.
Off to Panama
5:00am we left for the airport and by 3:00pm we were at our hotel in Panama City. This time we stayed at the Raddison right beside the Panama Canal. It was a completely new area for us and really quite impressive. Our room looked down on the canal itself and we could see the Bridge of the Americas with the ships passing underneath.
That evening we went to what turned out to be the local yacht club for dinner and a few drinks.
Again there we could look right out at the canal and watch the shipping. Some of the ships are absolutely ginormous!
The following day our flight wasn’t until 1:00pm so we enjoyed a great breakfast at the hotel and then walked around the area. As it turned out the whole area is parkland and the peninsular makes for interesting walking and exploring.
There are ruins from the Americans that had a base there, playing fields and even a Garden of Biodiversity park, plus by following the Amador Avenue.
One can walk all the way to the Nature Center Flamenco Island and Perico Island. We will definately return to the Raddison.
Back in Red Frog
Our flight back to Bocas is always on a small plane which takes just under an hour and flies just above the clouds.
Back at Bocas we were fortunate to easily get a mini van type taxi to the Basimentos launcha water taxi dock. Back at Aeeshah it was as if we had never left. Chico greeted us with affection and quickly let it be known he was after his dinner.
Walks, friends and seas
We were soon back to our regular routine of out for morning walks and then working on getting Aeeshah ready to leave.
Vet Gloria very nicely agreed to come to the marina to give Chico his annual. Well he was not a happy cat when he saw and felt the needle….which he had to have 3.
He has recovered now. Thank goodness he is vetted for a whole year now.
The walks were wonderful, normally we would head up the steep lane to the top of the hill.
We check the view, down one of the tracks to the shoreline by Red Frog beach. We survey the beach and walk out to the miramar where we see the surf.
Recently the surf has been thundering ashore, my photos do not do it justice, seas of over 13feet breaking on the rocks. The spray in the air all around the beach, red warning flags fly to warn folks not to swim due to the surge and rip currents.
Finally we spied the monkeys. The first time they were in the trees along the side of the marina Lane. There seemed to be mainly mothers and babies.
The babies were all over the place, never sitting still simply scurrying from tree to tree limb to limb, jumping crazy distances.
The second spotting was from the pathway that runs along side the dense jungle. These guys were more mature, quieter, one just sat and watched us almost as if studying our faces.
On the Friday evening we met up Madeline and Roy and walked to the Point for dinner. It was a lovely evening. The dinner was excellent as usual.
Out to anchor
Just under 2 weeks after we returned we headed out to anchor. We kept our dock space so as we could still go ashore for our walks and also use the shopping boat as we still had some chores in town. For me the biggest chore was visiting the dentist about my broken crown. BUT that’s for next month.
